Dangerous Times in Times Square

This past weekend, a disaster which could have claimed the lives of hundreds of people was narrowly averted. An alert vendor in the busy Times Square area was astute enough to notice a Nissan Pathfinder SUV oddly parked at a spot in the area where it soon began to smoke. The vendor notified a mounted police officer and a short time later, the area was evacuated and the police along with bomb squads were called in to deal with the ticking time bomb. The bomb squad managed to diffuse the bomb well before it went off but it gave many New Yorkers and those of us outside the city also have taken pause and have considered just how close we came to another act of terrorism in New York.

Naturally the first thing people want to do is lay the blame. Who is to blame? Is it the police for allowing a vehicle of this sort into the city? People have already started to wonder why the police didn't stop the vehicle at a checkpoint the way they used to. The truth of the matter is that it comes down to complacency and I wouldn't say that it's the police who are complacent. Going through an airport these days can be a very long and drawn out affair. You're subjected to so much security that it feels almost as if the journey through security is longer than the actual flight you're looking to take. Despite that, security precautions at airports have not really changed since 9/11.

So then why did things change everywhere else? Partially it's because we ordinary people are also very fussy. If we're subjected to random vehicle searches or screenings at airports we get ticked off. It's because most of us feel that we aren't the ones who should be scrutinized. It's the other people who look suspicious that should be undergoing this inconvenience, not us. After hearing such complaints all the time and running on limited budgets (after all, how many police officers can you assign to do nothing but randomly check vehicles day in and day out) it's no wonder that checkpoints that were once located all over New York are now dwindling.

I'm sure some will seek to blame the President in what they perceive to be a lack of focus on fighting terrorism and terrorists. But who was the terrorist in this case? It wasn't who most people assume it to be. If we are to believe grainy video footage captured in the area, the chief suspect at this time is assumed to be white. Perhaps it's a jihadist who is wearing make-up or perhaps it's a normal American who has been brainwashed like Richard Reid the infamous Shoe bomber. Whoever it is, they have merely proven that we can't afford to be complacent as a society. Those seeking to harm our citizens are still out there and we must make sure that similar near-disasters don't happen again. If it means a little bit of an inconvenience due to more security checks then so be it. I'd rather be safe than sorry.